Asking the right veterinary interview questions is a key part of our process. These first conversations go a long way in finding the perfect candidate to join your team. Generally, open-ended questions are the best way to learn about a prospective employee. We base everything we do on our years of experience working in veterinary offices just like yours! We’ve put together a sample of important questions to ask, and how they inform the hiring process. 

This question is a great way to understand if an applicant is a good culture fit for an opening. We strive to match our clients with candidates who naturally align with their day-to-day rhythm. If your office has a constant buzz of activity, we’ll recommend candidates with equally high-energy preferences. For clinics that make a lot of farm calls, we make sure a new veterinarian doesn’t mind spending time on the road. 

Having experience working with a specific patient type doesn’t automatically mean a candidate is right for a role. We want to find passionate veterinary team members for your practice. Even the most skilled veterinarian or vet tech will struggle if they’re not able to do work they really love. This question also gives us a chance to hear how a candidate talks about their work as a whole.

We prioritize learning if a candidate enjoys working with the kinds of animals your clinic sees the most. Fulfilled teams deliver the best patient care, and we want to ensure a perfect fit for years to come. 

Asking about everyone’s least favorite thing to do helps us learn how a candidate leverages compassion in their work. We want to find your office a new team member with the skills to gently handle tough conversations. It’s also important to explain what happened in easy-to-understand terms.

Not every member of your team will have this responsibility, but the idea applies to anyone who interacts with your clients. We can tweak this question to any client-facing role to make sure you hire only the best. 

We want to find your office a new team member who will really listen to what your clients have to say. A candidate’s response to this question helps us get a feel for their ability to see others’ points of view and think outside the box. We can also gauge their ability to uncover a client’s true reasons for objecting to a treatment recommendation. Misunderstandings or financial difficulties might be more of a holdup than a client thinking you’ve made a poor diagnosis.

Your office deserves a talented staff with great problem-solving and conflict resolution skills. We especially love to hear details of how a candidate already has experience with conversations like this. 

This open-ended question is another great way to learn about a candidate on a personal level. Good answers reveal a potential hire’s strengths, and how they deal with adversity. We can also get a feel for how positive they tend to be overall. We make a point to find applicants who take the good with the bad and see every day as an opportunity to improve. Getting specific examples of their professional highs and lows also helps us understand what motivates them in the workplace.

Veterinary Recruiting and Staffing Solutions is more than just a staffing agency. We help our clients find the best candidate for their open position for the long term. These veterinary interview questions certainly aren’t a comprehensive list, but they’re an integral part of our process. If you have an opening in your office and need help finding the right person for the job, we’d love to hear from you! Give us a call or send us a message at any time. You can trust our skilled team to help your practice grow so you can focus on what matters most—your patients.